Creating a manga is about much more than just drawing beautiful characters. You could have the most stunning illustration skills in the world, but if your storytelling lacks structure, the reader will lose interest.
The magic of manga lies in the invisible architecture of the page— the way the eye dances from one image to the next, creating a cinematic experience in a static medium.
This architectural blueprint is known as the storyboard.
Planning your panel layouts is where you transition from being an illustrator to being a director. You are deciding camera angles, pacing, and the emotional beat of every scene.
In this guide, we will break down the art of manga layout, explore the technical requirements of reading order, and provide a step-by-step workflow to help you build immersive worlds.
What is Manga Storyboarding?
The anatomy of a storyboard accompanies an essential requirement towards scaling the layout – understanding how to diagram each segment visually. The term “manga layout” also referred to as “storyboarding” is a practice where scenes are designed alongside the character’s placement and organisation of pages. Each comic page is done in a storyboard manner and is single-handedly seen as the most essential part of the manga layout.
One must also make room for interaction between the panels and how each will be positioned as well as the overlap between panels. The flow of the story will determine the timing with all these spatial manipulations and rest assured the climax of each emotion and pace will be solely intended zeroing on pacing arcs in the story. Read a detailed article about How to Storyboard for a Manga .
Why is Panel Layout Planning Important?
If you skip the planning phase and jump straight to drawing detailed characters, you will inevitably run into structural problems. You might find that your dialogue doesn't fit in the bubble, or that a dramatic reveal happens at the bottom of the page instead of the top, ruining the surprise.
Proper layout planning is essential for three main reasons:
1. Controlling Pacing and Flow
In cinema, the director controls the time; the movie plays at a set speed. In comics and manga, the reader controls the time. They can flip pages quickly or stare at one image for minutes. Your layout is the tool you use to influence that speed.
Decompression: Using many panels to slow down a single action (like a slow-motion shot).
Compression: Grouping many events into fewer panels to speed up the narrative.
2. Enhancing Readability
A well-planned layout is invisible. The reader shouldn't have to think about which panel to read next. If a reader has to stop and figure out the order of events, the "spell" of the story is broken. Good planning ensures the eye travels seamlessly through the gutter (the space between panels) without confusion.
3. Visual Storytelling and Emotion
The shape of your panels conveys emotion. A claustrophobic, narrow panel can make a character feel trapped. A wide, expansive panoramic panel can evoke freedom or loneliness. By planning these shapes in advance, you ensure the vibe of the page matches the emotion of the script.
Manga Page Layouts
Before you put pen to paper, you need to understand the canvas you are working with. Manga page layouts are distinct from American comic book layouts. While American comics often rely on a standardised grid (like the 9-panel grid), manga layouts are generally more fluid, dynamic, and focused on character emotion.
The Role of the "Bleed"
One of the most defining features of manga layouts is the "bleed." This is when the artwork extends past the edge of the panel border, or even off the edge of the physical page.
contained panels (panels with borders on all sides) imply that time is contained or the action is objective.
Bleed panels imply that the mood is expansive, or the action is too big to be contained. Using a full-bleed page for an establishing shot immerses the reader instantly into the setting.
How Many Panels Are in a Manga Page?
This is one of the most common questions beginners ask. If you use too many, the page looks cluttered and intimidating. If you use too few, the story feels empty and decompressed.
So, how many panels are in a manga page usually?
The answer depends heavily on the genre (Demographic) and the intensity of the scene, but here are the industry standards:
Shonen (Action/Adventure for Boys):
Average: 3 to 5 panels per page.
Why: Action requires large movements and impact. Small panels make punches look weak. Action artists prioritise speed and clarity, often using large, slanted panels to convey force.
Shojo (Romance/Drama for Girls):
Average: 4 to 7 panels per page.
Why: These stories focus on emotional nuance, internal monologues, and reaction shots. You often need more panels to show the subtle shift in a character's expression or to include "floating" montages of flowers or abstract moods that layer over the panels.
Seinen/Josei (Adult Demographics):
Average: 5 to 9 panels per page.
Why: These stories are often text-heavy and complex. They require more grid-like structures to handle the density of information and dialogue.
Aim for an average of 5 panels. This provides a healthy balance between dialogue, action, and atmosphere. If you go above 8 panels, ensure they are simple close-ups. If you use 1 or 2 panels, it should be for a massive reveal or climax.
Key Elements to Consider in Panel Layout Design
Manga Panel Reading Order
The single biggest mistake new creators make is creating a layout that looks "cool" but is impossible to read. You must understand the natural path of the human eye.
Right-to-Left vs. Left-to-Right
Traditional Japanese manga is read from Right to Left. If you are creating a manga intended for a global audience or trying to mimic the authentic style, you should stick to this format. However, if you are a Western creator making OEL (Original English Language) manga, you may choose Left to Right.
Whichever direction you choose, you must be consistent.
Blocking the Eye
Your panel arrangement should physically block the eye from skipping ahead.
The Problem: If you have a horizontal panel spanning the top, and two vertical panels below it, the eye naturally drops down.
The Fix: Use the "T-Cut." Avoid 4-way intersections (where four panel corners meet at a single cross point). 4-way intersections confuse the eye because the reader doesn't know whether to go down or across. Always offset your panel lines so the path is clear.
Guide to Designing Your Layouts
Now that we understand the theory, let's look at the practical workflow of creating your storyboard.
Step 1: The "Nemu" (Thumbnail Sketches)
Before you touch your final manuscript paper, start small— really small. Grab a standard piece of A4 paper and divide it into 8 to 10 small rectangles to create a bird's-eye view of your entire chapter.
In this phase, stick figures are king; forget about detailed anatomy or pretty drawings and focus entirely on composition and narrative flow. As you loosely sketch your script into these boxes, pay special attention to the "Page Turn," a secret weapon of manga pros.
By ensuring the final panel of a spread (the bottom-left in traditional manga) ends with a mini-cliffhanger or a lingering question, you subconsciously force the reader to physically turn the page to resolve the tension, keeping them hooked on your story.
Step 2: Determining Panel Shapes and Sizes
Once you transition from thumbnails to your actual page size, the focus shifts to geometry and how panel shapes dictate the reader's emotional experience.
Start your sequences with an establishing shot (typically a large, wide panel at the top) to firmly root the reader in the scene. When the intensity picks up, abandon the safety of rectangular boxes; use slanted, trapezoidal panels for action shots to create instability and velocity, making punches or sprints feel faster.
Contrast this energy with vertical panels for reaction shots to highlight facial expressions, or use the "Miyazaki" approach for quiet moments: a wide, borderless "bleed" panel that lets the scenery breathe, giving the reader a necessary pause in the conversation.
manga page
Step 3: Integrating Dialogue and Sound Effects
A common amateur mistake is drawing the art first and then trying to squeeze the text bubbles in later. This leads to cramped text and covered faces.
Place your dialogue bubbles during the sketch phase.
Eye Guiding: Use bubbles to lead the eye. If a character in Panel A is speaking to a character in Panel B, place the bubbles to create a bridge between the two panels.
SFX (Sound Effects): In manga, Sound Effects are part of the art. A loud "DOOM" shouldn't just be text; it should be hand-drawn, jagged, and potentially breaking out of the panel borders. Plan space for these massive sound effects so they don't obscure key artwork.
Step 4: Refining the "White Space"
The space between panels is called the gutter.
Vertical Gutters (between side-by-side panels) should be narrow. This implies a short amount of time or simultaneous action.
Horizontal Gutters (between top and bottom rows) should be wider. This implies a passage of time or a change in scene.
By manipulating the width of your gutters, you subconsciously tell the reader how much time has passed.
Advanced Techniques: Kishōtenketsu and Pacing
If you want your layouts to feel truly professional, you should apply the Japanese narrative structure known as Kishōtenketsu not just to your story, but to your individual pages.
Ki (Introduction): The top panel introduces the situation (e.g., Two samurai face each other).
Sho (Development): The middle panels develop the action (e.g., They draw their swords and charge).
Ten (Twist): The largest panel on the page creates the impact (e.g., The swords clash with a massive spark).
Ketsu (Conclusion): The final panel resolves the page and leads to the next (e.g., One samurai falls, or they look at each other in silence).
By structuring your manga page layouts with this rhythm, every page feels satisfying to read. It gives your story a "heartbeat."
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Panel Layout Planning
Even experienced artists fall into traps. Here are three specific issues to watch out for during your second draft.
1. The "Wall of Text"
Because manga is fundamentally a visual medium, having a panel that is 50% covered by speech bubbles is a clear signal that you have written too much dialogue.
To fix this, try splitting the conversation across multiple panels to improve the pacing, or simply cut the text and allow the character’s facial expression to carry the emotional weight. By trusting your artwork to convey the message, you adhere to the golden rule of storytelling: show, don't tell.
2. The "Talking Heads" Syndrome
Visual boredom is a real risk if your page consists of six panels that are all just close-ups of talking faces.
To keep the reader engaged, you must actively vary your camera distances throughout the conversation.
Mix up your composition by using extreme close-ups on the eyes for intensity, pulling back to mid-shots or full-shots to show body language, and experimenting with verticality using bird's eye or worm's eye views to add dramatic depth.
3. Ignoring the "Safe Area" and "Trim"
It is crucial to account for the physical printing process, as the edges of the paper are often trimmed during manufacturing. To avoid disaster, ensure that all critical elements—such as text, faces, and key plot items—are positioned within the "Safe Area," typically an inner box spaced about 1-2cm from the edge.
Failing to respect this boundary means risking having a crucial line of dialogue or a character's expression chopped off at the printers, ruining the readability of your page.
Manga Request scene
Lastly
Storyboarding is the phase where you solve problems. It is much easier to erase a stick figure in a thumbnail sketch than it is to redraw a fully inked page because the perspective was wrong.
While the concept of "Geometrical Partitioning" and counting how many panels are in a manga page might seem analytical, these are the tools that allow your creativity to shine. A well-structured page disappears, leaving the reader alone with your characters and your story.
What you have to watch out for in your next steps:
Take a scene from your script.
Draw it using only 3 panels.
Draw the same scene using 8 panels.
Compare them. How did the feeling of the scene change?
The version with 3 panels likely felt fast and impactful. The version with 8 panels likely felt slow, detailed, and dramatic. This is the power of layout. Master it, and you master the reader's experience. Happy drawing!
